WEST BERLIN WEEKENDS

March 12, 2017

We’ve just had the sunniest weekend that Berlin has seen for a long while and it was wonderful, so I thought I’d share it here. I actually took my coat off outside, it felt liberating to be outdoors without the cold needling my face. Though the Berlin winters can feel dark and gloomy at times (with lots of Netflix), the summers are worth it, and if that little peep of sunshine that we had this weekend could brighten everyone’s day so much- imagine what months of it will bring?!

Over the weekend we hopped on the S-bahn and went to West Berlin, to Rogacki- an old market. It was built in the 1930’s and hasn’t changed since. Old locals stand around drinking wine, eating smoked fish or oysters whilst they put the world to rights. It looks like a rough and ready version of the market halls that you see in fancy department stores. Yet this is the original, real-deal.

We even made a friend called Briguitta who gave us wine then took us on a tour of the stalls, telling us how each fish was smoked and where it comes from. We bought delicious cheeses, smoked fish and red wine. There is a really cool vinyl shop near the back entrance which also looks like it has been stuck in a time warp since the 1970s. Nick bought three world-music vinyls which he was pretty happy about.

In fact, the whole area has been stuck in a time warp. It’s such a contrast to the edgy East Berlin where we live which is full of young people from all over the world claiming Berlin as their home. It’s random days out like this that make me love living in Berlin, you can continually discover such contrasting things in this city.